Ramblings In Brighton - The Hand In Hand

The Hand In Hand was my local whilst in Brighton, being just 200 yards or so from my hotel. For that reason it was the pub I visited the most and the pub I watched The Champions League Final in.

There is no doubt that the pub has some interesting clientele. I first visited the pub in the 1990s and shared the window seat with two old toothless soaks who seemed like a regular fixture. I've not seen them since; they are probably in boozy heaven, but there is still the odd fascinating character to make people-watching fun.

Before writing this, I had a read of Beer In The Evening to read their comments. A lot of those are negative, but I have always enjoyed myself and have only once had a dodgy pint. This week there was two of their own Kemptown Beers: Kemptown Bitter and Ye Olde Trout, together with two from Dark Star: Hophead and Festival, and Cains IPA, which was a long way from home compared to its companions on offer. There are a dozen or so foreign beers including draught Bacchus Kriek and Hacker-Pschorr beers from Germany.

I stuck mostly to the sublime Hophead although I did have a couple of pints of Kemptown Bitter as well for old times sake. Between our group all five beers were tried, and there were no complaints

You wouldn't know it if you'd never been before but the pub has actually been spruced up over the last few years, with the smoking ban making a vast difference. It used to be very dingy, now it's only pretty dingy! The picture at the top shows it being yellow; I'm not sure it still is, but not taking my camera doesn't help.

This is a really good pub well worth the twenty minute walk from the railway station. Like a lot of Brighton pubs it is small (it claims to be the smallest in the city), and is all the better for its intimate size. The pub has been for sale and still may be, I am lead to believe, so changes may occur in the future. It would be a shame if the pub were to change very much.